When designing blogs I noticed there are a few different design elements that I have to take into account every time. I have broken these different design elements into nine different parts. The more attention you give to each part, the better your overall blog design will be.
Comment design is an art. Comment design is often overlooked by a lot of web designers when they are designing their blog. It tends to be one of the last things a web designer works on and because of that it suffers. This list shows 30 blogs where the web designer didn’t just throw together the same old comment design and put extra effort into their comment design to make it fit with their blog design.
1. alwaysBETA
1. Weblog Usability - Top Ten Design Mistakes
Jakob Nielsen gives us the run down of the top 10 blog design mistakes. When Jakob talks, I listen… sometimes. I can’t help it, he has a lot to say. But his breakdown of the top 10 design mistakes is quick to the point so give it a read.
Cliches suck, here are 13 of them for blogs. Yes, the calendar is one of them! Get rid of them please, they clutter blog designs and serve no real purpose.
3. 10 Principles of effective web design
Smashing Magazine does an excellent job of breaking down 10 important principles when it comes to web design, which also applies to blog design. Go read and learn.
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When I get passionate about a topic, I tend to search for the best material I can find on it in order to expand my knowledge further. Web design is no exception and this list represents the books I have found to be very useful. These are all books that I have actually read and most of which are sitting on my bookshelf right now. This list is a follow up to my article “Buy, Borrow, or Steal the Best Books to Get Ahead.”
The links lead to the book’s amazon page and they have my associate id attached to them. Because I don’t have ads on this site I have to ask that if you like this list and decide to buy a book from amazon, please use my links as it would be helpful in paying for my coffee, book addiction, and future contests. Enjoy!
1. The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
Blog design rules are not set in stone by any mean, but there are a few things that you can do when designing your blog that really will hurt your blog’s success. While we all like to believe that the content is more important than the design, there is just no getting around the fact that the blog design is what your visitors use and see when they navigate your awesome content. If you make dumb mistakes when you design your blog you can outright prevent your reader to read any further, subscribe to your blog, or buy something.
Here are five mistakes to avoid when designing your blog.
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